Who Hurt You 2

Who Hurt You 2
Bjorn 

I don’t know why or how she did it, but I had my answer now. It was Jennifer who paid off my families depts. I was already prepared to fight for her, but a new wave of determination and resolve washed over me now.  
I would make sure I could spend the rest of our lives taking care of her and paying her back. I may not have a fancy degree or a trust fund, but I knew I could make her happy, if only she would let me try.  
To start with, I need to find whoever made this post as so far, it was my only lead. “I traced the IP address to someone called Lezly McLure. I wrote down her address and phone number for you.” Cieran reported after a few minutes, handed me a piece of paper.  
“Thanks Cieran, I owe you one.” I said, walking out to make the phone call right away. I wasn’t going to leave yet, not when I had the opportunity to spend some time with Jennifer.  
It rang for a long time, and I almost gave up when Lezly finally answered. “I’m not interested,” She announced sharply. My mind reeled quickly “I’m not a scammer!” I said quickly before she hung up.  
“My name is detective inspector Bjorn Ezekiel. Am I speaking to Lezly McLure?” I waited, I hadn’t heard the dial tone yet, but she had gone noticeably quiet. “What can I do for you Inspector?” She asked cautiously with a wary tone.  
“I was wondering if I could speak to you about an article you wrote about ’The Sunshine Collaborative' about 17 years ago?” “Why? So, you all can tell me I’m crazy again? Was it not enough that you drove my Frank off that bridge? Back for more?!” She was clearly getting very agitated as she fired off her accusations.  
“Ma’am please, I don’t know what happened to you back then, but I am deeply sorry for the way you were treated. I just want to know if you still have any way to contact the person you interviewed?”  
“No, she was smart enough to get out of here. They tried to come after her when she didn’t respond to their slander but by the time they came looking she was long gone. I hope she is somewhere, living happily, far away from them now. If not...”  
She went quiet. “If not?” I asked, “They had ways of making people disappear, I just hope she really escaped before they got to her.” She said sincerely. I felt disappointed but after all that I had read, I shared Lezly’s sentiment and hoped she was living happily and safe somewhere too.  
“Thank you for your help, ma’am, if you think of anything else, can you please give me a call?” I asked, hopeful for anything that might bring me closer to finding out what was really happening there.  
“Are you really going after them detective?” She asked with a reserved tone. “At the moment, I am just trying to gather as much information as possible.” I replied, not committing to anything just yet.  
She was quiet again for along moment. “I have something that might help you, but you will have to meet me in person.” She finally said. We arranged a time and a place to meet; I would need to arrange a flight for tomorrow morning.  
“Okay, I will see you then Ms. McLure.” I said, excited to finally have a lead. “See you then. Oh, and detective?” “Yes?”, I questioned “Take care.” Those were her final words before she hung up and they seemed to carry a heavy ominousness with them that contradicted my excitement from a moment ago.  
I took a deep breath, steeling myself for the journey ahead. I was just going to meet up with this lady, find out what she had for me and come back. Surely there wasn’t too much that could go wrong with that?  
I headed back inside and saw that Jennifer now had a laptop in her hands and was working away. “How did it go?” Cieran asked, “I have a meeting with her tomorrow evening.” I replied.  
“You’re going alone?” He asked with a hint of worry. “Yeah, I am working alone on this.” I explained. “You have a personal phone that’s separate from your work phone, right?” “Yeah, why?” I responded.  
“Because I’m not putting my tracking app anywhere near a police mobile.” He replied, holding his hand out for my phone. I thought for a moment but handed over my phone willingly after a thought.  
“It can be switched off unless there is a problem. It’s just a backup plan in case there is an issue. I can set up parameters if you want so that it sends an alert if you leave a certain area?” Cieran explained.  
“No, no, that’s okay, I’m just going to meet this woman at a cafe, get the information and come back. There shouldn’t be any issues.” “He will need a hotel room too Cieran.” Jennifer interjected without looking up from her screen.  
“It’s a six-hour flight.” She elaborated, still engrossed in her work. “Right, got it.” Cieran replied, clicking a few times on his computer mouse. A moment later, my phone pinged with a new message.  
There were three attachments, a return flight, a hotel booking and a map of the area. Cieran glanced at Jennifer, “If you need anything or have any problem, you can call me right away.” He told me.